Abbey Road
, EMI, Olympic and Trident Studios, London | Genre = Rock | Length = | Label = Apple | Producer = George Martin | Last album = Yellow Submarine (1969) | This album = Abbey Road (1969) | Next album = Let It Be (1970) | Misc = }} }} Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the English rock band the Beatles. It is their last recorded album, although Let It Be was the last album released before the band's dissolution in 1970. Work on Abbey Road began in April 1969, and the album was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States. The album was released amid tensions within the band. Although it was a commercial success, it received mixed reviews from music critics who found its music inauthentic and criticized the production's artificial effects. Since its initial reception, the album has been viewed by many critics as the Beatles' greatest work and is ranked by several publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. Abbey Road remains their best-selling album. Composition and recording Background After the near-disastrous sessions for the proposed Get Back album (later released as Let It Be), Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to", free of the conflict that began following the death of Brian Epstein and carrying over to the sessions for the "White Album". Martin agreed, stipulating that he must be allowed to do the album his way. This would be the last time the band would record with Martin. In their interviews for The Beatles Anthology, the surviving band members stated that, although none of them ever made the distinction of calling it the "last album", they all felt at the time this would very likely be the final Beatles product and therefore agreed to set aside their differences and "go out on a high note". With the Let It Be album partly finished, the sessions for Abbey Road began in April, as the single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" / "Old Brown Shoe" was completed. In fact, recording sessions of John Lennon's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" had already started in February 1969 in Trident Studios, with Billy Preston on the organ—only three weeks after the Get Back sessions. Photos from these sessions are included in the book Get Back, which came along with the Let It Be album but not in the Let It Be film. McCartney is clean-shaven and Lennon has started to let his beard grow. Most of the album was recorded between 2 July and 1 August 1969. After the album was finished and released, the Get Back / Let It Be project was re-examined. More work was done on the album, including the recording of additional music (see Let It Be). Thus, though the bulk of Let It Be was recorded prior to Abbey Road, the latter was released first, and Abbey Road was the last album properly started by the Beatles before they disbanded. Lennon was on hiatus from the group and working with the Plastic Ono Band during the September 1969 lead-up to Abbey Road's release, which was effectively the first official sign of the Beatles' impending dissolution. The album's two halves were a compromise; Lennon wanted to release a traditional album with separate, unrelated songs, while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's with a medley. Lennon ultimately disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, while calling McCartney's contributions "music for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs." Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the medley's lyrics deal with "selfishness and self-gratification—the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams—perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'?—in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated C-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realization that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively. Side one "Come Together" The album opener "Come Together" was a Lennon contribution. The chorus was inspired by a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's campaign for governor of California titled "Let's Get It Together". A rough version of this can be heard in outtakes from Lennon's second bed-in event in Canada. It has been speculated that the verses, described by Lennon as intentionally obscure, refer cryptically to each of the Beatles (e.g. "he's one holy roller" allegedly refers to the spiritually inclined George Harrison); however, it has also been suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together"—"Here come old flat-top"—was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 whereby Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.Wenner, Jann. Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970 (2000): 90 "Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the Love album Martin described the track as a personal favourite. "Something" The second track on the album later became Harrison's first A-side single. Basing the first line of the song on "Something in the Way She Moves" from James Taylor's 1968 Apple Records album James Taylor, Harrison wrote "Something" during the The Beatles sessions. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. "Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Frank Sinatra once commented that "Something" was his favourite Lennon-McCartney song (though the song was actually Harrison's) and "the greatest love song ever written". The song was released as a double A-side single with "Come Together". "Something" became the first Beatles number one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition; it was also the first single from an already released album. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as can be seen in the Let It Be film). Paul wrote the song after his trip to India in 1968. He wanted to record it for The Beatles but it was turned down as "too complicated." According to Geoff Emerick's book, Here, There and Everywhere, Lennon said the song was "more of Paul's granny music", and refused to participate in the recording of the song. Harrison was also tired of the song. "We had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag", said Harrison. Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music" he said "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". "Oh! Darling" When recording "Oh! Darling", McCartney attempted recording only once a day. He said, "When we were recording 'Oh! Darling' I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon was of the opinion that it was the type of song that he should have sung the lead on, remarking that it was more his style.Sheff, David. All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (2010): 203 On the Anthology 3 compilation, Lennon can be heard singing the lead on an ad-libbed verse regarding the news that Yoko Ono's divorce from previous husband Anthony Cox had been finalized. "Octopus's Garden" Ringo Starr wrote and sang one song for the album, "Octopus's Garden", his second (and last) solo composition released on a Beatles album. It was inspired by a trip to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers' yacht that occurred when Starr left the band for two weeks with his family during the sessions for The Beatles. While there, he composed the song, which is arguably his most successful writing effort. While Starr had the lyrics nearly completed, the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison (as can be seen in the Let It Be film), although Harrison gave full songwriting credit to Starr. (Harrison and Starr would later collaborate on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy" and "Photograph"). "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in February 1969 and featuring Billy Preston on keyboards. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper, and when edited together ran nearly 8 minutes long, making it the Beatles' second-longest released song ("Revolution 9" being the longest). Perhaps more than any other Beatles song, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" reveals a pronounced progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects; the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure. It also features one of the earliest uses of a Moog synthesizer to create the white-noise (or "wind") effect heard near the end of the track. During the final edit, as the guitar riff and white noise effect continued, Lennon told engineer Emerick to "cut it right there" at the 7:44 mark, creating a sudden, jarring silence which concluded the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was).Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles Recording Sessions (1988): 178 The final overdub session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" would be the last time that all four Beatles worked in the studio together. Side two "Here Comes the Sun" "Here Comes the Sun" is Harrison's second song on the album and one of his best-known; it was written in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey, England. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969, where Harrison sang lead, played acoustic guitar and played the Moog synthesizer; McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass; and Starr played the drums. While not released as a single, the song has become a radio staple. "Because" "Because" features a Moog synthesizer, played by Harrison. The chords in the song were inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", in a roundabout way: Lennon said he "was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' on the piano. Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." "Because" features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give the effect of nine voices. Medley The climax of the album is a 16-minute medley consisting of several short songs, both finished and unfinished, blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles: Recording Sessions (1988): 183. Most of the songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for The White Album and Get Back/''Let It Be'' sessions. "You Never Give Me Your Money" is the first song. Written by McCartney, it is based on his feelings towards Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises.Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now (1997) p. 556 It slowly and quietly transitions into "Sun King" (which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies), "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' trip to India), and "Polythene Pam", all three contributed by Lennon. These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on lyrics from Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and the climax, "The End". "The End" is notable for featuring Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo" — in a similar way to the studio single version of Get Back). Normally, even though mixes were in stereo, the drums were mixed in mono, locked together with other instruments and often panned hard left or right in the stereo picture. Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Each has a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities: McCartney's playing is in a somewhat rigid staccato style; Harrison's is melodic with pronounced string bends and Lennon's is rhythmic, stinging and had the heaviest distortion. Immediately after Lennon's third solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". Underlying those lyrics is a remarkable and sophisticated metric modulation in which the piano's 8th note chords (the 1& 2& 3& 4& under "And in the end...") become the triplets (1&a 2&a 3&a 4&a) which establish a new tempo for "equal to the love..." resulting in a dramatic slowing of tempo for the final bars over which Harrison plays a short, lyrical solo. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album. "Her Majesty" "Her Majesty", tacked on the end, was included in a rough mix of the side two medley, appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he had it cut out of the tape. However, second engineer John Kurlander had been instructed never to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he picked it up off the floor, spliced 14 seconds of red leader tape onto the reel, and then spliced in "Her Majesty" onto the leader tape. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when Malcolm Davies at Apple received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album. Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. "Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note of "Her Majesty" remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam". This is the result of "Her Majesty" being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although "Her Majesty" was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album. Commercial performance Abbey Road was a massive commercial success. It sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted straight at number 1. Abbey Road spent its first 11 weeks in the UK charts at number 1, before being displaced to number 2 for one week by the Rolling Stones debuting at the top with Let It Bleed. However, the following week—which was the week of Christmas—''Abbey Road'' returned to the top for another 6 weeks, completing 17 weeks at the top. In all it spent 92 weeks inside the UK Top 75, and 16 years later on 31 October 1987, when it was released worldwide on CD, it reached number 30. In the UK Abbey Road was the best-selling album of 1969 and the fourth best-selling of the entire 1960s, and the eighth best-selling album of 1970. Reaction in the US was similar. The album debuted at number 178, then moved to number 4 and in its third week to number 1, spending 11 non-consecutive weeks at the top. Abbey Road spent a total of 129 weeks in the ''Billboard'' 200, re-entering the chart at number 69 on 14 November 1987. It was the NARM best selling album of 1969"NARM Awards" Billboard 6 March 1971: N27 and was number 4 on Billboard magazine's top LPs of 1970 year-end chart. Abbey Road was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA in 2001. In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that US sales of Abbey Road were about 5 million.Dove, Ian. "Beatlemania Returns As 'Let It Be' Clicks" Billboard 6 June 1970: 1 When the Beatles disbanded, the album had sold over 7 million copies worldwide. According to EMI, its worldwide sales reached 7.6 million copies in October 1972. This was also the first Beatles' album to reach the 10-million mark in worldwide sales, in 1980. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. It remains the band's best-selling album. Critical reception | rev2 = The A.V. Club | rev2Score = A | rev3 = Consequence of Sound | rev3Score = Album Review: The Beatles – Abbey Road [Remastered « Consequence of Sound] | rev4 = The Daily Telegraph | rev4Score = | rev5 = Down Beat | rev5Score = | rev6 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music | rev6Score = | rev7 = The New Rolling Stone Album Guide | rev7Score = The Beatles | Album Guide | Rolling Stone Music | rev8 = Paste | rev8score = 100/100 | rev9 = Pitchfork Media | rev9Score = 10/10 | rev10 = The Rolling Stone Record Guide | rev10Score = Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (Editors). The Rolling Stone Record Guide, 1st edition, Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979, p. 27. }} Abbey Road received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics, who criticized the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of the London Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people by who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called it "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio." Although he found its 15-minute medley their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special." Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects." By contrast, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice said that the album "captivates me as might be expected" and found it "flawed but fine." John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying." Retrospect Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless." Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s." Neil McCormack of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous". Allmusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Pepper's "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalog, "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Abbey Road received high rankings in several 'best albums in history' polls by critics and publications. Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2012, the magazine ranked it number 14 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Production notes Abbey Road, The Beatles (partially) and Let It Be were the only Beatles albums to be recorded on professional eight-track reel to reel tape machines, rather than the four-track machines that were used for prior Beatles albums starting with the single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in 1963 and the album A Hard Day's Night in 1964. EMI's management had not approved the use of their then-new 3M eight-track deck until shortly after the sessions for their 1968 single "Hey Jude". Also, the Moog is prominently featured, not merely as a background effect but sometimes playing a central role, as in "Because" where it is used for the middle 8. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (played using a ribbon strip) and "Here Comes the Sun". The instrument was introduced to the band by Harrison who, earlier in 1969, had used one to create his Electronic Sound album. Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid state transistor mixing desk as opposed to thermionic valve. One of the assistant engineers working on the album was a then-unknown Alan Parsons. He went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Album sleeve The sleeve was designed by Apple Records creative director Kosh. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover. Imagery The front cover design, a photograph of the group traversing a zebra crossing, was based on sketched ideas by McCartney, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At around 11:30 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo whilst he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up the traffic. In the scene, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot. With the exception of Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. To the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, is a white Volkswagen Beetle motor-car which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was stolen repeatedly from the car. In 1986, the car was sold at auction for £2,530 Equivalent to £ or $ }} today and in 2001 was on display in a museum in Germany. The man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture is Paul Cole (c. 1911 – 13 February 2008), an American tourist unaware he had been photographed until he saw the album cover months later. Legacy The image of the Beatles on the crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history.BBC article on the album cover http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8188475.stm The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans and there is a live webcam featuring it. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.BBC news article on listed status http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12059385 In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement, using the cover and having a caption, "If they can, why can't you?". Cover versions The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times (see the song articles for more details) and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Road's release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo. |title=McLemore Avenue |publisher=allmusic}} Additionally, several artists have covered some or all of the side B medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), Soundgarden, Dream Theater, the String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic, the Punkles, Tenacious D, Umphrey's Mcgee, 70 Volt Parade, Furthur and Jukebox the Ghost. Furthur played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on March 4, 2011 and ended with the Abbey Road medley in New York City on March 15, 2011. "Her Majesty" was worked into the show's encore. Each song the band played from Abbey Road was played in the same order, although on different days, as on the original Beatles album. Track listing ;Notes * "Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track. Between "The End" and "Her Majesty" is 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing. * Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped so that Harrison's composition opens the album. * Tracks 3 through 7 on side two are sometimes noted as one song (medley) called "The Abbey Road Medley". * Tracks 8 through 10 on side two are sometimes noted as one song called "The Golden Slumbers Medley". Personnel According to Mark Lewisohn, Alan W. Pollack and Barry Miles. ;The Beatles * John Lennon – vocals; acoustic (six and twelve-string) and electric guitars; acoustic and electric pianos; Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion * Paul McCartney – vocals; acoustic, electric and bass guitars; acoustic and electric pianos; Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer; sound effects; handclaps and percussion * George Harrison – vocals; acoustic, electric and bass guitars; Hammond organ, harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion * Ringo Starr – drums, handclaps and percussion; lead vocals and piano (on "Octopus's Garden") ;Additional musicians * George Martin – piano; electric harpsichord, electronic organ, harmonium and percussion * Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)") ;Production * "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison) * "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney) * Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles) * Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald * Assistant Engineering by Alan Parsons * Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles) * Moog programming by Mike Vickers Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts 1987 reissue 2009 reissue Certifications }} |salesamount=379,800}} Release history See also * List of best-selling albums worldwide * List of best-selling albums in the United States * Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time References Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * External links * * Beatles comments on each song * Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough * Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing Category:Albums certified diamond by the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers Category:1969 albums Category:Albums produced by George Martin Category:Albums recorded at Abbey Road Studios Category:Apple Records albums Category:The Beatles albums Category:Capitol Records albums Category:English-language albums Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Category:Recording Industry Association of America Diamond Award albums Category:Albums conducted by George Martin Category:Albums conducted by Paul McCartney